Ansan: South Korea will spare no effort to support tech companies in strengthening data centers as part of the country's drive to become one of the world's leading artificial intelligence (AI) powerhouses, the science minister said Friday. Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon made the remark during his visit to Kakao Corp.'s data center located in Ansan, just southwest of Seoul, to discuss cooperation with local technology companies on bolstering the country's related infrastructure.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the visit came after South Korea recently unveiled plans to purchase more than 35,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) over the next two years as part of a nationwide push to strengthen AI infrastructure. Under the government's "AI Highway" initiative, South Korea aims to secure 50,000 GPUs by 2030 with a goal of becoming one of the world's top three AI powerhouses. The government earlier allocated 1.46 trillion won (US$1.4 billion) in extra budget this year to secure the GPUs.
"There is a sense of crisis that there is not much time left to survive amid the competition for leadership in the AI sector," Bae told reporters during the visit. "We need to reach a level high enough to compete equally with China within two or three years in order to gain fundamental competitiveness," he added.
During his visit, the Ministry of Science and ICT signed memorandums of understanding with the National IT Industry Promotion Agency, Kakao, NHN Cloud, and Naver Cloud to beef up South Korea's AI computing infrastructure. The companies asked the government to enhance its related investments and stressed the need to establish environmentally friendly data centers with efficient energy management.
In response, Bae said his ministry will push to secure a sufficient budget for the country's drive to acquire GPUs, along with efforts to create a foundation to help businesses make timely investments in AI computing infrastructure. "The government will proactively establish the legal grounds to help businesses address potential hurdles in order to speed up the construction of AI data centers," Bae said.
Bae noted the government will act as a catalyst to establish an AI ecosystem where businesses can utilize infrastructure and reinvest in the sector. "As the leading cloud operators in South Korea, the government asks companies to make proactive efforts to address shortages of AI infrastructure," Bae added.